Healdsburg’s Los Amigos Ranch is characterized by beautiful oaks, rolling hills, spectacular vineyard views, and a great location. The property entrance on Los Amigos Road is just 3.5 miles from the Healdsburg Plaza.

Visit the Los Amigos Ranch web site for more details on this special property. Highlights include:

Alexander Valley runs from the border with Mendocino County in the north to the south east side of Healdsburg. It contains over 40 wineries and several hundred vineyards with nearly 12,500 acres planted. The vineyards are planted on both sides of the Russian River and extend into the hills on the east side of the valley. Primary varietals are Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Chardonnay.

Real estate in the Cloverdale and Geyserville area is often a relative bargain compared to equivalent property immediately around Healdsburg. Smart buyers can save significant amounts on their purchase if they don’t mind a slightly longer commute and slightly warmer weather. Cloverdale, at the northern end of Sonoma County, does enjoy less fog and more summer heat than Healdsburg and other areas closer to the Russian River valley.

Northern Alexander Valley

The geography of the Alexander Valley and the layout of the roads explains some of the real estate pricing variability. There is a summer crossing of the Russian River that is highly convenient in the summer for quick access to Highway 101 and Healdsburg. On the other hand, in that area during most of the year you have to drive north on River Road and then south on Highway 101. This adds at least fifteen minutes for trips south in the winter for people living near the southern end of Cloverdale’s River Road.

In Geyserville, the north bound River Road ends at the Vineyards, a lovely development with a lake and miles of riding and hiking trails. There is no need to “detour” to get to Healdsburg, so the end of River Road doesn’t have a major impact on travel time. The dead end also reduces traffic impact on all the property in the area. The vineyards and homes along River Road here are closer to Healdsburg pricing due to the ease of access to Healdsburg.

The section of Alexander Valley along Highway 128 from Geyserville to the beginning of the Knight’s Valley appellation is dense with vineyards and wineries. Home values are higher here due to proximity to Healdsburg. Many of the wineries in this section of the Alexander Valley produce superb, award-winning wines, so the vineyard values reflect the underlying quality of the wines that can be produced. There are quite a few lovely back roads in this area.

Sonoma County continues to be a favorite destination of smart buyers willing to pay a premium price for the wine country lifestyle. Many are successful and financially prudent (missed the bubble) Bay Area residents looking for second homes that will turn into their primary residence when they retire. Other highly-qualified buyers are looking for an additional residence or vineyard to add to their real estate portfolio for long term appreciation.

Two areas in particular are hot spots for premier property selling for over a million dollars. The greater Sonoma area, including Glen Ellen, accounted for over 80 sales in that price range last year. This area is especially attractive to buyers who are still working in San Francisco and appreciate the shorter commute from Sonoma.

Healdsburg Million Dollar Sale Map

Healdsburg was also a strong contender for Sonoma County luxury property transactions with 40 homes selling for more than a million dollars. In addition, Healdsburg outsold the Sonoma area with the largest number of Sonoma County residential transactions over $4,000,000. (I have linked a PDF file showing the breakdown of million dollar residential sales in Sonoma County for 2012 by area and price.)

An important factor to keep in mind as you look at Sonoma luxury listings on the properties linked below is that in this context luxury refers to selling price, not home quality. In many of the listings, the house may be an insignificant part of the overall value of the property, particularly on the large acreage and vineyard parcels. In addition, with the older housing stock typical of Sonoma and Healdsburg, even well built homes that were considered to be outstanding in their early years may have fallen on hard times due to deferred maintenance or simply failure to upgrade.

The most elusive property on the Sonoma County market today is a luxury contemporary home. There aren’t very many of them around to begin with, let alone as active listings. The few that have been on the market with fair pricing have been quickly scooped up by buyers represented by savvy agents. In the most dramatic example of that, a Healdsburg house listed at over $6,000,000 sold the first day it was on the market last year.

Blu Homes in Healdsburg. It’s a match made in heaven. Blu Homes are a great example of smart, green construction and Healdsburg in the heart of Sonoma County’s wine country is a fantastic place to live…and eat. Sunset’s 2012 Idea House has been attracting large numbers of visitors every weekend during August. Sunset is keeping the house open to the public until September 9, so you still have two weekends to see this wonderful example of a green, precision-built home. The Idea House is a finished product, but you also have a chance to see (from a distance) the house next door, a Blu Home in the making.

Many of the people who have looked at Sunset’s Breezewood model Blu Home are now looking for land in Healdsburg and Sonoma County to place their own Blu Home. There are always lovely parcels available for buyers who want to build their own wine country dream, but it may take some persistence to find just what you are looking for. I think one would fit just perfectly on my listing at 1240 Emerald Ranch Road, for instance. That’s a site that already has underground power and water, paved roads, and an approved septic design.

If someone is dreaming bigger, the 201 acres at 11450 Los Amigos Road has enough room for five Blu Homes and all the associated granny units, guest houses, and other outbuildings that can accompany each one. You could also plant more than 50 of the acres to grapes on the beautiful, oak-studded meadows. The land is in both the Russian River and Chalk Hill Appellations.

From a real estate perspective, the construction of any house is the last in a long series of steps necessary to find a lot, make certain it is well suited to your goals, create plans, get permission from the local authorities to build, hire a wide variety of sub-contractors to prepare the site, bring in power, find water, create a septic system or hook to the sewer, etc. It can easily take one or two years from locating your ideal site until you can actually build unless you buy a lot that already has the infrastructure in place.

If you have any questions about how to get started with building your own country getaway with a Blu Home or just want to find out more about real estate in Healdsburg in Sonoma County, please give me a call at 707-869-1884 or send an email.

Architects and their clients have to be picky about where they choose to build. The right decision will save significant time and money. A poorly selected site can cost much more to prepare for building than anyone anticipates.

A construction project starting on a raw parcel has a long list of tasks that have to be successfully performed before the real work of house building begins. For both architects and owners, the hidden costs can be far higher than budgeted for. The utilities required to service a home include obvious ones like road and driveway access, site grading and preparation, and electric and telephone service. Water and septic development can cost substantial amounts as well as limiting what’s possible to do on a site. At the very least, delivering these services to a building site will take planning, permits, excavation, grading, and much coordination with engineers, contractors, inspectors, PG&E, AT&T, and others. It’s a full plate of work and much of it has to happen before the project moves at full speed into the house building phase.

Emerald Ridge

It’s the major reason that finished lots are popular with architects and owners. Building a house is enough of a challenge without having to get bogged down with the time and major expenses required for preparing the site. It is not unusual in Sonoma County for owners to spend half a million to a million dollars or more on roads and other needed utilities on estate sites. That cost doesn’t include finance costs related to the year long process required to manage wet weather perc testing, dry weather well testing, and the need to do excavation and grading when the soils are workable. If you are planning to build from scratch, you will probably need to plan on at least a year before you are going to be able to break ground for your house.

For many architects, the year long delay is the price they have to pay to find the site they want. Most of the coveted sites that are close to town have already been built on. Some clients can afford to buy a nice home to tear down and start over, but it’s an expensive way to get a vacant, developed lot. Other sites may have perfect exposure to the sun and views that make them worthy candidates to spend time and money on. Occasionally, the perfect view and solar site may also have decent locations and privacy. Other times the pursuit of seclusion ends up chasing clients farther from the towns, restaurants, and wineries they are building their wine country estate to enjoy.

The Emerald Ridge lots just outside Healdsburg are special because they resolve the development and location issues perfectly. Architects looking for a site with great sun, views, privacy, and interesting terrain will be delighted with the potential on the three newly available sold 20 acre properties. Once they understand the costs and delays common to raw land, owners will be thrilled that the unknowns costs and delays of rural development have already been eliminated and they can work with their architect on drawing up house plans immediately. The chance to build something special that is also readily accessible to Healdsburg provides a unique opportunity.

Well, not unique. There are three zero lots available, so the chance to build at Emerald Ridge is limited rather than unique. These lots have been in development for over five years and have just become available to purchase in December of 2011 (all sold as of early 2013). Call or email me to arrange your personal tour…of other properties.